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Education

Cornell University
Doctor of Philosophy (Expected 2025)
Psychology

Mt. San Antonio College
Associate of Arts (2014)
Psychology and Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Arts (2016)

Psychology, with High Distinction and Honors in Major

Research Interests

Emotion, emotion regulation, conversation, social exclusion, interpersonal processes

Research Grants Awarded

Cornell Center for Social Sciences. The Cancellation Gap: Do we actually know what causes someone to be canceled? (Role: Co-PI; Amount: $6,505.00). Funding Dates: 4/26/2025 – 06/30/2027.

 

Cornell Center for Social Sciences. The effect of causal mechanistic explanations on perceptions of research findings. (Role: Co-PI; Amount: $28,421.00). Funding Dates: 11/08/2021 – 06/30/2026.

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Cornell Center for Social Sciences. Relational and well-being outcomes of (non)reciprocity in attachment networks. (Role: Co-PI; Amount: $5,912.00). Funding Dates: 4/25/2023 – 06/30/2025.

Awards and Honors

2024  Cornell University Provost Diversity Fellowship

2024  Robert S. Hatfield Award for the Study of Ethics in Business and Organizations

2024  Society for Affective Science Diversity Trainee Award

2023  Cornell University Graduate School Dean's Scholar

2023  Cornell University Department of Psychology Graduate Student Teaching Award

2022  Cornell Cognitive Science Program Travel Award

2021  Cornell Department of Psychology Departmental Service Award

2021  SPSP Diversity Graduate Registration Award

2021  SPSP Graduate Registration Award

2020  Cornell Department of Psychology Graduate Student Mentorship Award

2020  NSF GRFP Honorable Mention

2019  SPSP Diversity Graduate Travel Award

2019  SPSP Graduate Travel Award
2018  Cornell University Sage Fellowship

2016  Warner Brown Memorial Prize for Outstanding Promise in Psychological Research
2016  Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Berkeley Chapter
2015  Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, Berkeley Chapter
2014  Honors Transfer Council of California Exemplary Achievement Award
2014  Kaitlyn McCanne Memorial Scholarship
2014  Dr. Ginny Burley Honors Program Scholarship

Publications

​(note: asterisk [*] denotes undergraduate mentee)

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  1. Ni, M., Lee, R.T., & Zayas, V. (in press). The bittersweetness of self-representations: Cross-cultural insights that the self triggers both positive and negative implicit evaluations. 
     

  2. Williams, W.M., Lee, R.T., Clark, C.J., & Ceci-Williams, W. (2025). Critical thinking in the age of political polarization: Navigating cognitive biases, social identity, and affiliation. In R.J. Sternberg & W. Niu (Eds.) Critical Thinking Across Disciplines, Vol. 2 (pp. 41-66). Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-82640-5_2 
     

  3. Lee, R.T., Surenkok, G., & Zayas, V (2024). Mitigating the affective and cognitive consequences of social exclusion: An integrative data analysis of seven social disconnection interventions. BMC Public Health, 24, 1250.  doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18365-5 [PDF]
     

  4. Lee, R.T., Ni, M., Fang, W.M., Ravreby, I., Shoda, Y. & Zayas, V. (2024). An integrative framework for capturing emotion and emotion regulation in daily life. Affective Science, 5(3), 179 183. doi:10.1007/s42761-024-00262-0
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  5. Rosenfeld, D.L., Balcetis, E., Bastian, B., Berkman, E.T., Bosson, J.K., Brannon, T.N, Burrow, A., Cameron, C.D., Chen, S., Cook, J., Crandall, C., Davidai, S., Dhont, K., Eastwick, P., Gaither, S., Gangestad, S., Gilovich, T., Gray, K., . . . Lee, R.T., . . . Tomiyama, A.J. (2022). Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(2), 311–333. doi: 10.1177/1745691621999374
     

  6. Zayas, V., Lee, R.T., & Shoda, Y. (2021). Modeling the mind: Assessment of if…then… profiles as a window to shared psychological processes and individual differences. In D. Wood, S.J. Read, P.D. Harms, & A. Slaughter (Eds.) Measuring and Modeling Persons and Situations (pp. 145-191). Elsevier.
     

  7. Darling-Hammond, S., Lee, R.T., & Mendoza-Denton, R. (2021). Interracial contact at work: Does workplace diversity reduce bias?. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(7), 1114–1131.   
    doi: 10.1177/1368430220932636  [PDF]
     

  8. Milton, S.*, Manfredi, N.*, Cress, D.*, Lee, R.T., & Zayas, V. (2021). More than an icon: Public figures mitigate emotional distress [Special section of top 20% reviewed extended abstracts from the 8th Annual Society for Affective Science Conference]. Affective Science. doi: 10.1007/s42761-021-00068-4
     

  9. Perez, A.D., Lee, R.T., & Mendoza-Denton, R. (2020). Belonging in schools. In C. Worrell, T.L. Hughes, & D.D. Dixson (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Applied School Psychology (pp. 157-169). Cambridge University Press.
     

  10. Lee, R.T., Perez, A.D., Boykin, C.M., & Mendoza-Denton, R. (2019). On the prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States. PLoS ONE, 14(1):e0210698.​​ doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210698 [PDF]
     

  11. Zayas, V., Sridharan, V., Lee, R.T., & Shoda, Y. (2019). Addressing two blind spots of commonly used experimental designs: The highly-repeated within-person approach. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12487 [PDF]
     

  12. Campos, J.J., Camras, L.A., Lee, R.T., He, M., & Campos, R.G. (2018). A relational recasting of the principles of emotional competence. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, (15)6, 711-727.
    doi: 10.1080/17405629.2018.1502921 [PDF]    ​

Manuscripts In-preparation

  1. Baum, S.M., Critcher, C.R., Lee, R.T., & Zayas, V. (under revision). Caught in the middle of social exclusion: A misguided and counterproductive reluctance to speak up.
     

  2. Lee, R.T., Zayas, V., Surenkok, G., Baum, S.M., & Critcher, C.R., (in prep.). Preferential treatment leads to exclusion of rejected others by included individuals.
     

  3. Lee, R.T., Rivera, V.*, Piker, I.*, Surenkok, G., & Zayas, V (in prep.). I thought we were BFFs?  The Involuntary Excluder Effect among friends.
     

  4. Jeffrey, C.M.*, Lee, R.T., & Zayas, V. (in prep.) Emojis used in text based communication among partners shape perceptions of relationship quality. 

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